Devastation is worst Powell has seen
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the devastation caused in Indonesia by the tsunami was the worst he’s ever seen.
The former army general, who flew over flattened villages along Sumatra’s northern coastline, said: “I’ve been in war and I’ve been through a number of hurricanes, tornados and other relief operations, but I’ve never seen anything like this.
“I can not begin to imagine the horror that went through the families and all of the people who heard this noise and then had their lives snuffed out by this wave.”
Powell was in Indonesia ahead of a meeting of world leaders in Jakarta tomorrow to iron out problems co-ordinating history’s largest relief operation.
So far €1.4bn has been pledged, but with nearly 150,000 people dead, millions homeless and tens of thousands threatened by disease, the challenges are enormous.
Hardest hit was Sumatra, which was closest to the 9.0 magnitude quake that struck off of Indonesia’s western coast on December 26, triggering the tsunami that caused deaths as far away as East Africa.
Powell said he saw “how the wave came ashore, pushing everything in its path - cars, ships, freighters overturned – all the way up to the foothills, and then starting up the foothills until finally the waves came to a stop”.
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